About Me

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This is a blog for John Weber. One of my joys in life is helping others get ahead in life. Content here will be focused on that from this date forward. John was a Skype for Business MVP (2015-2018) - before that, a Lync Server MVP (2010-2014). I used to write a variety of articles (https://tsoorad.blogspot.com) on technical issues with a smattering of other interests. I have a variety of certifications dating back to Novell CNE and working up through the Microsoft MCP stack to MCITP multiple times. FWIW, I am on my third career - ex-USMC, retired US Army. I have a fancy MBA. The opinions expressed on this blog are mine and mine alone.

2010/01/29

quotable quotes

In this day and age of ever increasing government size, control, invasiveness and the (apparent) rise of socialism in the US…

 

"The trouble with Socialism is, sooner or later you run out of other people's money."  - Margaret Thatcher

"When you subsidize poverty and failure, you get more of both." - James Dale Davidson, National Taxpayers Union

"The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates." - Tacitus

"A Liberal is a person who will give away everything he doesn't own." - Unknown

Who is going to pay for all of this?  - TsooRad

2010/01/21

Heightened Threat Levels Explained

I got this from a friend of mine; he happens to be an ex-pat Brit.  I fully expect this to jerk someone’s chain, but IDGAF.

Heightened Terrorist Threat Raises Alert Levels


The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was during the great fire of 1666.

 
The Scots raised their threat level from "Pissed Off" to "Let's get the Bastards" They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the frontline in the British army for the last 300 years.

The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide". The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France 's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability.

It's not only the French who are on a heightened level of alert.   Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout loudly and excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain": Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."

The Germans also increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbour" and "Lose".

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual, and the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels .

The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.

Americans
meanwhile are carrying out pre-emptive strikes on all of their allies, just in case.

New Zealand  has also raised its security levels - from "baaa" to "BAAAA!". Due to continuing defense cutbacks (the air force being a squadron of spotty teenagers flying paper aeroplanes and the navy some toy boats in the Prime Minister's bath), New Zealand only has one more level of escalation, which is "Shit, I hope Australia will come and rescue us". In the event of invasion, New Zealanders will be asked to gather together in a strategic defensive position called "Bondi".

Australia
  , meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries" to "She'll be all right, mate". Three more escalation levels remain, "Crikey!', "I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend" and "The barbie is cancelled". So far no situation has ever warranted use of the final escalation level

2010/01/14

Just a little over the top, thanks!

Installed a new DC yesterday.  Today I thought I would quickly audit the event logs, just to make sure things were going well before I moved to the next task.

Keep in mind that this figure (as shown below) is for less than 24 hours of no activity - there has been NO activity on this server other than a few logins that may have been handled.  No files, no one else logging in, nuttin’!

image

12,970 security events in less than 24 hours?  Really?  I am as security conscious as the next average Joe, but at some point the real problems become obscured by the chaff.

2010/01/13

Oh my aching brain cell, or, dcpromo u gotta be kidding me!

 

Stupidly, I attempted to join a new 2008 R2 DC to our domain the other day.  I was doing it from a different site, but heck, should be no sweat, right?

Wrong.

DNS was good, name resolution worked, and the machine could join the domain, but why the dcpromo errors?

“failed to examine the active directory forest.  the error was: the operation cannot conitnue because the ldap connect/bind operation failed: error: 58” 

and

“the operation cannot continue because ldap connect/bind operation failed: error: 1326”

I tried various fixes and whatnots…and then stumbled across a little tidbit here that implied that the computer administrator (pre-domain) password might need to match the forest root domain administrator password. 

Having exhausted all my other possibilities, I tried this - and did not expect any success.

But, WTFO!  It worked.  So now the question is, why?

test 02 Feb

this is a test it’s only a test this should be a picture